The French Promise To Intercept Small Boats

French authorities have finally vowed to intercept small boats in Channel waters as figures show migrants reached Britain every four-and-a-half minutes last week.

A new ‘maritime doctrine’ set to come into operation next month permits French police officers to block dinghy departures within 300 yards of the shoreline.

Presently, they are barred from intercepting any boat once it is in the water.

However, gendarmes have voiced worries about their safety once the new rule takes effect.

The new rules will be introduced after Channel migrants reaching the UK topped 2,000 in a week for the first time in 21 months, following 489 arrivals on Tuesday.

The 2,222 arrivals over seven days meant an average of one migrant reached Britain every four-and-a-half minutes.

Police unions are understood to have concerns their members may be required to enter the water wearing ‘Kevlar’ body armour, which can weigh up to 6lbs and would put them at risk of drowning.

Sources said French officers had also raised concerns about being unable to carry firearms if they are required to go into the sea because salt water would damage the weapons.

However, French police colonel Olivier Alary said that his teams ‘will be able to do more’ once the 300-yard rule comes into force.

‘If the rules change to allow us to intervene against these taxi boats, as close as possible to the shore, then we’ll be able… to be more effective,’ he told the BBC.

Marc Musiol, of the police union Unity, said: ‘I can understand an average British person watching this on television might say, ‘Damn, those police don’t want to intervene.’ But it’s not like that.

‘Imagine people on a boat panic and we end up with children drowning. The police officer who intervened would end up in a French court.’ He added: ‘It’s a complicated business, but we can’t fence off the entire coastline. It’s not the Second World War.’

Last week’s crossing count was the most since September 2023, when the former Tory government’s Rwanda policy was still in legal limbo.

It tipped the total since Labour came to power at last July’s general election past the 40,000 mark, hitting 40,276.

Since the start of this year, 17,034 migrants have reached Britain, up 38 per cent on the same period last year. The figure does not include hundreds more who reached Dover yesterday.

Reform leader Nigel Farage said it was ‘about time’ Britain faced up to the fact it was ‘our fault’ – rather than France’s – that so many migrants head here. ‘We will never stop the boats from leaving France,’ he told broadcaster Talk.

‘They’d need 10,000 soldiers on the beaches to stop every boat from going. The reason they’re coming isn’t the French’s fault, the reason they’re coming – it’s our fault. It’s about time we faced up to that.’

His remarks echoed comments from French politicians over recent years which blamed Britain’s asylum system, as well as insufficient checks on illegal working, for making this country an ‘El Dorado’ for illegal migrants.

In an attempt to lower the possibility of police discovery, people-smuggling gangs have recently started transporting inflated dinghies to the coast strapped to vehicle roofs instead of inflating them on French beaches.

It illustrates how traffickers’ tactics are always changing.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer withdrew the Tories’ Rwanda asylum scheme – which was designed to prevent crossings and protect lives – as one of his first acts in office.

Instead, Labour promised that investment in law enforcement would crack the crisis. But migrant numbers are soaring and Downing Street this week revealed the problem was ‘deteriorating’.

A government source said last night: ‘Any new tactics to prevent these criminals from facilitating these dangerous journeys are always welcome.’

And a Home Office source pointed out: ‘On exactly the same days in 2023, 2,375 people arrived – or one every 4.2 minutes – when Rishi Sunak was PM and Robert Jenrick was immigration minister.’

If this information comes from Downing Street you can pretty much assume it’s nonsense.

The solution is to cease providing these migrants with free benefits and everything else and to start charging them for illegal entrance if they manage to get in. Why should they be permitted entry without a passport but we Brits are unable to exit the country without one?

I can’t see the French authorities wading into the sea to turn back boats. This is just another ploy by two-tier Starmer and his numpty co-workers.

Everybody knows the value of a politician’s pledge.